Variety: Acrostic

Oct. 29, 2016

VARIETY PUZZLE — Once again, we open by issuing an abject apology to a large group of people occupying a land mass, due to the nature of the acrostic quote. We’re sorry, Florida. But I’ve been there, and you do have insects the size of Buicks.

Seriously, Craig Pittman’s quote comes from his book, “OH FLORIDA!”, where he has humorously and painstakingly researched the contradictions that keep Florida weird and yet seem to influence the rest of the nation. Dave Barry wrote a similar book called “Best. State. Ever.”

I made my way into the acrostic with COLD SWEAT, although my first try was EYE TWITCH, which also fits, GHOST TOWN and the game MOUSE TRAP. I absolutely loved the wordplay in entry B: Did you figure out that the “queens” were bees and not humans? Their diet is the ROYAL JELLY secreted by worker bees.

Let’s hear from our constructors:

Constructors’ Notes

Here’s a guy who thinks his home state is weirder than others. We’re willing to believe him. We once stayed in Orlando for about a month, and although nothing bizarre happened to us, we did have a general, uneasy sense of the ground being too porous and spongy and filled with aggressive ants. But then we’re native Northeasterners and we’re more accustomed to solid rock.